Monday, March 31, 2014

When trying to show the
importance of ideas, speaking tends to be so much easier. Word choice- along
with the chance to instantly replace words for clarity- a tone of voice that
expresses which ideas are emphasized, and even the speaker's body language work
together to create sentences where thought coordination or subordination are
evident.

Writing,
though, is much more difficult. The writer has many rough drafts, but one final
opportunity to demonstrate which thoughts show coordination, and which ones reveal
subordinate ideas.

For
example, maybe I want to show that Zelda's and Bubba's responsibility about
homework is the same. I would write, "Zelda and Bubba both turn in their
homework ninety percent of the time."(I bet
that their teacher is happy with this excellent data!)

But
what if I want to emphasize that Zelda is more responsible than Bubba? I might
write, "Although Zelda is conscientious about always meeting homework
deadlines, Bubba is undependable about completing his assignments.

That
information in that sentence is correct, but the emphasis is on Bubba's lack of
responsibility because this idea is in the Independent Clause- always the
clause that shows the most important idea.

This
activity, "What's so Important? A Coordination and Subordination
Activity" offers Middle School and High School students three different
activities to practice showing What is So Important.

What's So Important? A Coordination and Subordination Language Arts Lesson is aligned with the Common Core standards and Bloom's
Taxonomy, but will easily meet the needs of individual state's benchmarks.

Middle
School and High School students will find that their verbal and written
misunderstandings will diminish when they master "What's So
Important".